By Morris Phillips

BERKELEY, CA–The Cal Bears losing streak has been laid to rest. But another menace has surfaced: Pac-12 defenses.

Utah came to Haas Pavilion on Thursday with two missions: get a win in the wake of a pair of frustrating losses and a commitment to lean heavily on their defense in the process.

Missions accomplished.

“The bright side is we held them to 43 points,” Utah coach Craig Smith said of the Utes 58-43 win over Cal. “That is hard to do. I don’t care who you play when you play. To do that, that is hard. Defense travels, so super excited about that.”

Utah held the Bears to 34 percent shooting from the floor and that combined with a holiday-dented crowd of fewer than 2,000 made for a quiet night in Berkeley.

The Bears welcomed super senior transfer DeJuan Clayton to their rotation but got little in return. Clayton showed his rust and the significance of having just two practices in missing eight of his ten shots. With Clayton, Cal’s plodding attack changed little as they struggled to create separation from Utah’s attentive defenders. That standstill was best reflected in Cal’s underwhelming total of four assists on the evening.

“We didn’t help each other offensively,” coach Mark Fox said. “Defensively, we did okay.”

“We got some pretty good looks, especially in the paint,” said Kuany Kuany, who led Cal with 12 points. “We didn’t convert, and we can do better.”

The Bears trailed 27-18 at the break then found some disruptive defense of their own to climb within 33-31 with 13:40 remaining. But the Utes steadied and cruised from that point, leading by as many as 16 with 1:37 to go.

“That first media timeout wasn’t pretty in our huddle, but to the credit of our guys, they showed self-awareness,” Smith said. “Nobody was pointing fingers. They manned up to it and figured it out.”

Cal’s leading scorers, Devin Askew and Lars Thiemann, suffered the worst. Askew returned from missing Cal’s first win over Texas-Arlington and wasn’t right, taking just three shots and scoring seven points. Thiemann was hounded by the Utes’ big front line, missing six of his eight shots before fouling out late.

The Bears fell to 0-3 in Pac-12 play and will now look to getting their initial conference win against Colorado on Saturday.

“If we can get healthy and whole, I think we can make some headway,” Fox said, “but we’re going to have to grow up.”

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